Schoolyard Quality and Opportunities for Well-Being at School: A Citizen-Science Approach to System-Wide Measurement for Equity

ABSTRACT

Schoolyards represent an important opportunity for physical activity, development and learning. However, there is minimal policy or accountability for their level or distribution. Through community partnership and citizen science, we built a system-wide picture of schoolyard quality across Ontario, using a validated, standardized tool. Quality was low with considerable variation. The top-scoring school scored 61 of a possible 88 points, the minimum was 14 (M = 35.3; SD = 9.9). Affluent schools and communities had slightly better playgrounds than poorer ones. Knowledge mobilization about how schoolyards impact health and shortcomings in existing resources raise possibilities for advocacy and policy work.

Acknowledgments

We appreciate the active support from our colleagues at Ophea, particularly Chris Markham and Tammy Shubat, and the participation of citizen scientists across Ontario. Taylor Hill, M.Sc. contributed research assistance in the early stages of this research, and we appreciate the support from our team of student auditors. Discussions with Jennifer Robertson-Wilson, Mark Eys, Joseph Flessa and Karen Acton helped shape the project. Any limitations or errors are our own.

Disclosure Statement

This project is part of a partnership between Ophea – a leading healthy schools organization in Ontario – and researchers at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Notes

1. An earlier version of some of our findings, written for the general public, was published online by Ophea, Ontario’s Healthy Schools Organization, in 2021. See Gallagher-Mackay et al. (2021b).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Wilfrid Laurier University.